1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus that incorporates a power supply battery and an image pickup device therein and has an image pickup function.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, mobile electronic devices, for example, smartphones and tablet computers have widely been used. In concert with this, various proposals relating to devices used in combination of these types of mobile electronic devices have conventionally been made and various devices have been put into practical use.
Examples of the devices used in combination with the aforementioned conventional mobile electronic devices include, e.g., an image pickup apparatus having an image pickup function by means of incorporation of a high-performance image pickup device, such as one employed in, e.g., a general camera, and a power supply battery and allows detachment/attachment of a replaceable lens barrel.
Since this type of image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup device, the image pickup apparatus itself has an image pickup function. Therefore, some of the image pickup apparatuses are configured so as to, besides the capability of operating as an image pickup apparatus alone, be capable of, by means of communication with a mobile electronic device such as mentioned above, e.g., performing image pickup operation via remote control using the mobile electronic device, and displaying a live view image or a shot image using a display apparatus of the mobile electronic device, and also enabling, e.g. indication of a menu for various settings for the image pickup apparatus to be made from the mobile electronic device side.
Conventional image pickup apparatuses of this type generally include, inside a body of the apparatus, e.g., a power supply unit including a power supply battery (e.g., a rechargeable battery) that supplies power to internal component units in addition to an image pickup unit including an image pickup device that performs photoelectric conversion of an object image to generate image data.
For example, an image pickup apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5541431 includes, in a rough center part of the inside of a body of the apparatus, an image pickup unit including an image pickup device, and is configured in such a manner that a battery holding chamber is formed in an internal space on a part close to a back side of the body and a power supply battery (rechargeable battery) having a shape corresponding to a shape of the battery holding chamber is detachably disposed. In this case, in the image pickup apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 5541431, an electric substrate with an image pickup device mounted thereon is arranged in parallel to a surface orthogonal to an optical axis and a main substrate with an image processing engine (semiconductor that handles, e.g., output signals and video signals from the image pickup device) mounted thereon and a flat-shaped power supply battery are arranged in parallel to the electric substrate.
For such forms of conventional image pickup apparatuses as mentioned above, there has consistently been a demand for reduction in size of the apparatuses themselves. Therefore, various component units disposed inside the apparatus tend to be disposed extremely closely. In this case, various ingenuities are necessary for efficiently releasing (dissipating) heat generated from components that generate a large amount of heat during operation, for example, a power supply unit including a power supply battery (e.g., a rechargeable battery) and an image pickup unit including an image pickup device, and a main substrate with electronic parts such as integrated circuits providing an image processing engine and a control circuit, to the outside.